One of Indian football’s finest players, Bhaichung Bhutia has announced that he will be resigning from the All India Football Federation (AIFF) technical committee following the decision on India’s new head coach. On Saturday, the AIFF announced FC Goa coach Manolo Marquez as Igor Stimac’s successor.
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Stimac was sacked in June following India’s horrific run in the 2026 FIFA qualifiers as Men in Blue failed to qualify for the third round. The Indians had a easier group with Kuwait and Afghanistan present. The only threat was Qatar, but still the Indians should have qualified for the further round.
India went winless in their last five games despite pulling off a clutch win against Kuwait in the opening game of the qualifying round.
However, Bhutia isn’t too pleased with the appointment of Marquez, more than the appointment, the way AIFF have handled the appointment.
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Why is Bhaichung Bhutia resigning from the panel?
Bhutia revealed to the PTI that the AIFF had not held a single technical meeting, and had bypassed all the procedures to appoint Marquez as the new leader to grow Indian football. Bhutia also stated that he had been the AIFF chairman in the past, and had held all the necessary discussions before taking any decision.
I have been chairman of the AIFF technical committee in the past (2013 to 2017) and involved in coach appointments like in the case of Stephen Constantine. It is the job of the technical committee to shortlist the candidates who have applied and recommend the suitable person to become coach. But this time, there was not even a single technical committee meeting to appoint successor of Stimac.
Bhutia further revealed that the process is completely flawed. The executive committee takes all the decisions, right from appointment, extension and firing. According to Bhutia, the technical committee is simply useless if all the decisions are going to be taken by the executive committee.
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